Hebrews

Tonight on our way home from Awanas, we were going 

over the books of the bible.  

Lia would try to read them to me from the backseat and I would tell

 her what it said if she wasn't sure.  She is reading like 

crazy and she got most of them on her own!

Our list went like this:

Matthew 

Mark

Luke 

John

Acts 

Romans

1, 2 Corinthians

Galatians

Ephesians

Philippians

Colossians

1, 2 Thessalonians

1, 2 Timothy

Titus

Philemon

Hebrews

"Hmm!  He Bruise?  I bruise too!"

Yes, baby girl, I would say you do!

I wasn't going to post the bruise pictures, but after that precious conversation, I just couldn't resist!

This all came from a run in on the playground on Thursday afternoon, which led to a Dr. visit, CT scan, and lots of questions over the weekend!  

Praise God, she is doing fine, (although very tender) and we had a gorgeous day to celebrate daddy's birthday 

outside with a picnic.

The wind was a little much so one candle was plenty!

And now these three remain: 

faith, hope and love. 

A few weeks have passed, but at least I'm still posting pictures in the same month!  

Thanks to our wonderful family, we were able to share our 25th wedding anniversary with many friends and relatives.  What a joy to share special memories with 

precious people who have seen us through the good times and the struggles.

I never want to take one moment for granted for the gift God gave me in an amazing Godly man with whom I get to share life's ups and downs.  

 

  

Many years ago, our pastor,  Bro. Greene was there when I was born, 

he baptized both of us 

and all three of our boys, and now,  many years later we 

had the privilege of having Bro. Greene renew our wedding vows.

 

It's those vows and that commitment that have kept our love

alive when the struggles of this world would have told us to quit.

 

Thanks to my sweet friend, Rebecca, for the beautiful cake, 

 

my mom for her creative decorations, and the rest

of my family for transforming our new garage into a 

wonderful place to celebrate. 

Also, thanks to my cousins, at Zinnia Photography, for 

 capturing our day in photos we will treasure for many

years to come

But the greatest of these is 

love.

1 Cor. 13

Forever in our hearts

It is a genuine treasure when someone impacts  your life in such a way that you know will never be forgotten.  I've heard it said that often times people come into our lives for a reason or for a season.  We had one such person come into our lives for a very short season and it is a story that needs to be heard and remembered.  

I hope and pray you will read this story and then cherish each person in your life and realize they may only be there for a season.

This story began August 11, 2010 and came to a temporary end last week.  Temporary, because it will be continued when we all see Jesus face to face; a time I look forward to with great anticipation!

After Lia's heart surgery last year at our wonderful children's hospital we were supposed to have a translator come in since she had only been home for two months and was speaking little English.  When the translator didn't show up, we asked if there was someone to translate for her so she could understand what all was going on.  The hospital said there was a doctor on staff who spoke Mandarin who might be able to visit.  Later that day, a new face came into our room and began speaking to Lia in the most gentle voice ever.  He introduced himself as Dr. Benjamin Siu and said he was a pediatric cardiologist who was in the operating room during her heart surgery.  See, he didn't just care about our baby's heart, he also truly helped hold her heart.  After a caring conversation with Lia and time spent with David and I, Dr. Siu reached behind our backs and gently closed the door.  He then began to pray THE MOST amazing prayer I have ever heard in my life.  He didn't just pray a wordy prayer, but a prayer straight from the heart asking God for healing and to bless our baby girl's life.  He prayed that she would grow up and make an impact on others and share the love of the Lord with people in her birth county.  He prayed for her mental, physical and spiritual well being and brought many tears to my eyes.  If I never saw him again, that one moment would have made an impact I would never forget.

Two weeks later as we prepared to leave the hospital we had to tell which cardiologist we would follow up with.  We had already seen another wonderful doctor and didn't want to hurt her feelings by not continuing care with her.  We were told though that they were all in the same group and it would be no problem to change.  So, as God led us, we continued our follow up care with Dr. Siu.  Each visit was the same with him first speaking in Mandarin to Lia and lovingly reassuring her of what was happening.  Then he took as much time as needed to speak with us and explain anything we didn't understand.  Each visit ended the same with his arms around us and hand upon Lia and praying a prayer from the depth of his heart.  I asked Lia what the last thing was she remember about Dr. Siu and she remembered him handing her a cookie as we left his office in June and reminding her to also share a cookie with her mommy.  See that is the kind of man he was.  Always thinking of the needs of others.  He told us to come back next year and we expected to see him again in June. 

God however chose to take him home through a very tragic accident and we now pray for his family left behind.  Please keep them in your prayers and PLEASE watch this video to see what a wonderful man we had the privilege of knowing for a short time.  (Since it was on the local news I guess I can not upload it to my blog.)

 

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Cardiologist-killed-in-bike-crash-left-a-worldwide-legacy-136855773.html

Dr. Siu, we thank you for teaching us what a true follower of Christ 

looks like and for giving our daughter someone to look up to!

You were a servant of God whom we will never forget. 

Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.

Matthew 7:20

The Reason we celebrate

 The past month has been a month of celebrating the joyous birth of our Lord and Savior in so many ways.  Shortly after Thanksgiving we began decorating and planning and I decided to do something I hadn't done in a long time.  When the boys were little we had many friends with kids the same age and we had a Christmas party for all of the kids at our house. 

Many years later, I once again enjoyed planning a 

Happy Birthday Jesus party.

What a perfect way to combine the fun part of Christmas and the reason we truly celebrate by having Santa tell us the Christmas story and share with us why Jesus is better than Santa...

Santa comes but once a year 

and 

Jesus is with us all of the time when He lives in our heart.

 

The day after school was out we had a fun filled time of serving lunch at the Ronald McDonald House and then ventured next door to the hospital to take some pictures and enjoy the Christmas entertainment.

As the Christmas holidays grew closer,  I wished for one gift more than any other;

The gift of having all of my family together.

And that is exactly what I got and it couldn't have been any sweeter!

We spent Friday night with David's family, and Saturday night after our beautiful candlelight service we had our family dinner and gift exchange.  

Then Sunday morning we dug through stockings and saw what Santa left before going to church 

to sing Praises to THE ONE who came to this earth all because of

LOVE for YOU and for ME!

After church, we went to my mom's house to have lunch and fun with my Mom, Nannie 

and sister's families.  We seemed to string this celebration out for awhile, but it was so nice to really have time with each family and not feel rushed.  Soon, the gifts will be forgotten, but the time we spent together LOVING one another will always hold beautiful memories in our hearts.

 My family showered me with wonderful gifts,

and when mom says NO to a game for Christmas, 

I guess you can count on big brother to get it for you!

                                      I wasn't impressed, but it certainly made for many laughs.

 With legs as long as hers are getting, it was definitely time for a new bike,

 and anything zebra print will put a smile on her face!

Many more pictures to follow, but blogger is not allowing me to upload anymore tonight!  It might have something to do with the late hour, but if any of my blogger friends have ideas on how to upload photos a little quicker please let me know!  They seem to be taking forever to upload!

Thankfulness and Black Friday

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; 

                                        his love endures forever. 

After sharing our day with so many loved ones and enjoying a feast like no other we broke out the sale ads to check out all of the bargains.  

Here is THE ABSOLUTE BEST BARGAIN I found:

Open publication - Free publishing - More holiday gifts

Every dollar you spend will supply a need for an orphan and you will also get a

tax credit from  
LOVE WITHOUT BOUNDARIES.  

Can you find a sale any better than that? 

Do you like the new header photo?  

We had fun playing in the middle of this road today taking family pictures, so a new one will be soon to follow with 

this crazy family for which I am beyond

 THANKFUL!

My favorite....

No not my kids that is, but my favorite verse is this:

Don't you just LOVE this piece of artwork!  

I received  this as a gift last night when I had the opportunity to share my testimony to a wonderful group of ladies at First Baptist Church Hurst.  What an incredible blessing it was to be able to stand up and share the many ways the Lord has been working in our lives in the past few years.  Not only did I get to share on Veteran's Day, a day very dear to my heart, and National Adoption Month, a super special month, I also got to share on 

11-11-11!  

All of those 1's and I had the awesome chance to point to

  THE ONE and ONLY!  

It doesn't get much better than that!

Speaking of favorites, I really don't have favorite kids, but it is much easier to get pictures of some of them than others.  We have been very busy lately and I often don't have time to update my blog, so here are a few of the things I may have missed!

A fun evening with some very special girls eating at Babe's Chicken-YUM!

My two oldest teaching each other how to shoot a gun! 

SO VERY GLAD we don't live in the city!

Watching my oldest carry the cross! 

So glad I had a camera in hand to snap this photo 

as they were cleaning up things in the barn and he was moving this to another location.  

What a reminder that we must carry the cross everyday!

The beautiful kitchen remodel we just completed along with the pantries my 

crafty husband completed. The best gift ever to finally have a nice place for storage.

 My middle son who travels often and we treasure the little bit of time we get to see him!

Cousins sharing a moment together!

  Some beautiful flowers and even more beautiful girls.

Lia reading me the card she made telling me I was her BFF!

Sharing a wonderful Thai dinner with our youngest son, Brandon, 

and the special love of his life, Baleigh

along with the LOVE of my life!

Shoelaces and shovels

How will my girls ever learn to look for a young man who treats them well and values them?  Hopefully they will learn because they have been taught those lessons from a daddy who daily teaches them and values them for who God created them to be.

 Those little lessons like learning to plant flowers and learning to tie your shoes 

 bring with them much deeper 

life lessons they don't even realize right now.

  Lessons like....

 He wants to spend time with me...

I'm important...

I'm beautiful....

I'm his favorite...

Nothing is too insignificant for him.....

things every young girl needs to know.

 And in the not so distant future when those sweet little eyes begin to look at others I pray they can see their heavenly Father's eyes above all others because they saw it through 

their earthly father's eyes first. 

Those are the same eyes that could see this momma had endured a long week at school and

I came home to find these beautiful flowers today.

Reminds me of these words by Amy Grant:

She's got her father's eyes
Her father's eyes
Eyes that find the good in things
When good is not around
Eyes that find the source of help, when help just can't be found
Eyes full of compassion, seein' every pain
Knowing what you're going through, and feelin' it the same

Just like my father's eyes
my father's eyes

On that day when we will pay for all the deeds we've done
Good and bad they'll all be had to see by everyone
And when you're called to stand and tell just what you saw in me
More than anything I know, I want your words to be

She had her father's eyes, her father's eyes
eyes that found the good in things when good was not around
eyes that found the source of help when help would not be found
Eyes full of compassion, seein' every pain
Knowin' what you're goin' through and feelin it the same

Just like my father's eyes,

  

Finally here-maybe

After a scorching summer, we've had hints of fall, but summer seems to creep back in each time.  Last night, the winds started blowing and along with the hard winds came window clattering thunder, lightning and rain(the rain we still desperately needed).  The temperature dropped about 20 degrees and I think Fall is finally here.  What better way to celebrate the changing of the seasons than with a few pictures of a cute little pumpkin.

 

   “Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
   wisdom and power are his.
 He changes times and seasons;
   he deposes kings and raises up others.
He gives wisdom to the wise
   and knowledge to the discerning.
 He reveals deep and hidden things;
   he knows what lies in darkness,
   and light dwells with him. 

I thank and praise you, God of my ancestors:
   You have given me wisdom and power,
you have made known to me what we asked of you,
   you have made known to us the dream of the king.”  

Daniel 2:20-23

What a beautiful verse this is becoming to me! These past few weeks during our study of Daniel we have been challenged to memorize this verse and I love how God knows just the words we need at just the perfect time.  I don't know about you, but it sure is comforting knowing HE sees what lies in darkness and just like HE changes the seasons, HE has the
power to change circumstances beyond our control.

Oh, believe me, there are some circumstances I would change if it were in my power,
but I know it is His power that will change them in the perfect way and at the perfect time and I can't wish for anything better than HIS PERFECTION!

Reminders

 Some days there are reminders during those moments of routine that even though it seems like Lia has been in our family forever, it has really only been 15 months.  Such a short time, but I can hardly imagine our life without her and the joy she brings.  She has adapted better than I would have ever dreamed and we have our new routine with a young one around again.  Sometimes those reminders are funny and others times they bring tears to my eyes.

There are moments like tonight when she wanted to draw with the sidewalk chalk outside and not remembering the correct word, in her precious little voice she said, "I want to porkchop." Huh? You want to what?  I guess, porkchop and sidewalk chalk have about the same ring to them.  Pretty cute porkchop I must admit!

Then there are the gentle reminders of the tough days with very little that she experienced.  I occasionally ask her if she remembers something from her time in China simply so I can record it for her for later.  Tonight, after bath time, while she was carrying her clothes to the laundry room I asked her what she did with her clothes in the orphanage.  She said we just put them in a box so someone else could wear them the next day.  She said, "we had to share clothes."Sometimes they didn't smell good cause we all wear them."  Now, one of her most exciting things to do, is pick out her clothes for the next day.  Can you blame her?

Then, there was the short moment tonight that was a gentle reminder that she has experienced more abandonment than most of us will ever know.  While I was outside she was a bit stressed when she couldn't find me and I was only around the corner.  Once again, I promised her I would NEVER leave her and we went to prepare for bed. I snapped this photo with my phone the other night, but it is the same cherished scene most nights.  She wants to make sure we are VERY close before falling asleep and then I can quietly sneak out of the bed.

As we snuggled into bed and read a book, she decided tonight that she didn't want her pillow.  It was yet another reminder that she slept on a hard metal bed for a few years and sometimes she just reverts back.

Just like a couple of mornings ago I saw this sunrise and was reminded of God's faithful new mercies every morning.   I am so thankful for the new life He has given each of us who believe and that He promises never to leave us or forsake us. 

And then we have little reminders like really cool t-shirts matching big sister to remind 

us to think on the good things.

 

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Phil 4:8